Defense: ‘Kat’ suffocated ‘Lizzi’

Wednesday

May 28, 2014 at 10:44 AMMay 28, 2014 at 1:27 PM

DOVER — Public defender Joachim Barth told the jury Wednesday that it was Kathryn “Kat” McDonough who actually killed Elizabeth “Lizzi” Marriott during breath play using restraints, including a harness Marriott agreed to put on.

Seth Mazzaglia is on trial for murdering Marriott during a domination, bondage-style sexual threesome at the Dover apartment he shared with McDonough.

In testimony before lunch, Barth explained that McDonough, 21, positioned herself over Marriott’s face and intentionally restricted oxygen to her brain for sexual arousal on the night of Oct. 9, 2012. During the course of that breath play, Barth argued that Marriott, a 19-year-old University of New Hampshire sophomore, was suffocated.

Barth described McDonough as a free woman who was not controlled by Mazzaglia. He said it was McDonough that drove the bondage, domination and sadomasochism role play in their lives, leaving notes for Mazzaglia describing what she wanted on his personal computer. Barth said McDonough described herself as a “switch,” someone who could play either dominant or submissive roles, but that she openly wanted to perfect her role as a dominatrix. Barth claimed McDonough was obsessed with bringing a woman into her relationship with Mazzaglia to satisfy deep sexual urges, which included a desire to have sex with women.

Barth said McDonough brought out her box of restraints on the night Marriott was killed in Mazzaglia’s apartment. She convinced Marriott to put the harness on. When the breath play went “terribly wrong,” Mazzaglia went along with McDonough’s plans to dispose of the evidence, including Marriott’s body.

“What happened next was sheer panic,” Barth said.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley made a motion for Judge Steven Houran to declare a mistrial after Barth disclosed to jurors that Mazzaglia admitted to Marriott’s killing during an interview with police.

Houran denied the motion, but said the state could address that statement before the jurors. The statement by Barth “opens the door” to at least a portion of that now infamous 11-hour interview by New Hampshire State Police and a detective from the Dover Police Department on Oct. 12 to 13, 2012, just days after Marriott went missing.

In opening statements this morning, Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley said Marriott’s 2012 killing was a “deliberate, purposeful and cold blooded murder.”

Hinckley told the jury Wednesday morning that Mazzaglia, 31, of 1 Mill Street, Apt. 341, Dover, ordered McDonough, his submissive, to find him another woman that he, as a master, could sexually exploit just weeks before Marriott was lured to their apartment where she was allegedly raped and murdered on Oct. 9, 2012.

Hinckley said that when Marriott arrived on the night she died, she said “no” to kissing McDonough at Mazzaglia’s suggestion. Frustrated and mad because another sexual encounter he was planning would not take place later on that evening, Mazzaglia put on a pair of gloves and took a rope that he and McDonough used during bondage, domination and sadomasochism practices and put it around Marriott’s neck while she was sitting on the couch watching a comedy movie with McDonough. The two 19-year-old women, who had been co-workers at Target in Greenland, were playing a light-hearted game of strip poker.

“The defendant choked her from behind for minutes until she could no longer say no to him,” Hinckley told the jury.”No longer able to say no to him, he raped her.”

Hinckley said Mazzaglia got on top of Marriott and pushed her underwear aside, forcing himself upon her while muttering insults.

“He violated her limp body until he ejaculated and then he washed up,” Hinckley said.

Hinckley said McDonough, who was just 17 years old when Mazzaglia began to groom her, was obedient for Mazzaglia, doing nothing to stop him from brutally attacking and killing Marriott by strangling her.

Mazzaglia’s power over McDonough was so strong, and her love for him so deep, Hinckley suggested, that she willingly went along with his plans to find a sex slave. The couple searched for one online before Mazzaglia met Marriott, Hinckley said.

“He, the master, liked what he saw,” Hinckley said while describing how Mazzaglia enticed McDonough to lure Marriott to his apartment so he could exploit her.

Hinckley has completed his opening statements in the trial.

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